A California-based biotechnology startup has officially launched the world’s first commercially available butter made entirely from carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and oxygen, eliminating the need for traditional agriculture or animal farming. Savor, backed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates through his Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund, announced the commercial release of its animal- and plant-free butter after three years of development.
The revolutionary product uses a proprietary thermochemical process that transforms carbon dioxide captured from the air, hydrogen from water, and methane into fat molecules chemically identical to those found in dairy butter. According to the company, the process creates fatty acids by heating these gases under controlled temperature and pressure conditions, then combining them with glycerol to form triglycerides.
If it’s not dairy, is this not margarine rather than butter?
Also, a
proprietary process
Ugh, capitalism
It is neither plant or animal based, the chemical composition is claimed to be like butter, so it is even less margarine than it is butter. Margarine is hardened plant oil or technically it can also be made from animal fat. So this is neither margarine or butter, it is synthetic butter, since it synthesized chemically, rather than made by the traditional more natural method.
But yes capitalism indeed. Why try to help the world if you can’t make money on it? 🙄
proprietary process
Where the carbon is replaced with butter.
…carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and oxygen…
Pretty sure that is what regular butter is made out of too.
This isn’t butter, this is one type of butter fat. It’s missing the milk solids, proteins, and other molecules that contribute to butter’s smell and taste.
I can’t believe it’s not butter
Maybe they add some of those under “natural flavors”?
Then it’s no longer vegan.
The article doesn’t say it is vegan. And despite their “no plants, no animals, no oils” claim, the added “natural flavour and colour” needs to come from somewhere. Generally these are derived from plants, animals or oils.
Overall an interesting breakthrough, but the contradictions make me ask some questions.
How is this not just crisco, hydrogenated fat? Butter seems like it has more going on, traces of milk proteins & sugars that give it flavor.
Both of those things are basically C, H, and O.
“Tastes just like the real thing” is a sure sign that it is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the real thing
Typically there are minor ‘impurities’ that make the ‘real’ thing taste different.
Vanillin, for example, is very easy to produce chemically, which is good, because growing and harvesting it naturally is very difficult, but it’s missing a lot of the compounds which add subtle yet important taste and smell to the natural stuff.That’s what I’m thinking. For example, there are milk proteins in butter that undergo the Maillard reaction to produce different flavors. Will this product have the same proteins?
Especially tea
I’m watching you, Dent
If Bill Gates is involved we can be sure it’s to help humanity, and not to help capitalists and rich people to get richer.
He has a very good PR team because this man was also backing the former Monsanto company, with proprietary grains, supposed to help solve famine in the world, but causing poor farmers to be sued into bankruptcy and commit suicide. Oh and the grains also commit ‘suicide’ so if you are not sued because the wind flew proprietary grains to your field, you better have enough money to buy new grains from corporations every year.
So I’m sure anything he does can’t be bad. It’s all altruistic and for the good of humanity. Surely nothing proprietary there. All open source. For humanity.
Fuck Bill Gates.
He’s also on the Eipstein list.
Sound like coal butter, which existed in WW2 but was discontinued because of inefficiency.
And the most important question: how does it taste?
No the most important question is how much energy does it take?
[…] they take carbon dioxide from the air and hydrogen from water, […]
So direct air capture, instead of industrial waste CO2, good luck with that.
Margarine?
Whilst yes, uplifting, I also have a certain inherent skepticism to artificial facsimiles. Too often it’s an unwelcome discovery.
For instance about a year ago we found a new product in the cheese aisle, slightly cheaper than regular gouda and called “gaudina” - turns out, not actually cheese but instead made from milk powder, palm oil and other assorted stuff.
Until somebody proves through proper trials and reviews that the products have no statistically significant difference in health outcomes, I’ll be hesitant.
“Other assorted stuff”? The palm oil probably isn’t great, of course it’s simple existence is causing the intentional destruction of important forests and it, and the people who use it, can fuck right off, but otherwise I dunno, that doesn’t sound like the end of the world.
So, it’s probably more healthy then, with unsaturated fatty acids?
I think health on cheese a pretty low bar to beat tho
Bill Gates PR. He’s definitely on the Epstein list.
Must own stock, like his ‘philanthropist’ medicine scam.
This sounds less like uplifting news and more like replacing something good with something proprietary and patentable, in the name of greenwashing.
Rich fucks will provide any solution but reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
Something good?
You know the “real butter”.
Sure, if you want to call a hydrocarbon like methane “carbon” I guess. Why not.
Failing to parse this one; could I ask what did I miss in the article?
they aren’t using pure carbon, but compounds. the title suggests otherwise
Even the blurb in the description contains all the reference you need.
I see the methane; but it comes right after ‘pulling carbon out of the air’. Still, appreciate being held to a standard I guess.
Anything but stop polluting…
We could cut our carbon emissions? NO, no! This is an opportunity for profits! We can use this to squeeze just that bit more money out of people and it sets us up nicely to replace real butter when the total collapse of the ecosystem means that real dairy becomes an impossible luxury.
So, how’s that work on bread made from sand coming along?
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
But this is not good either.
Replacing a large amount of agriculture, which produces a lot of emissions, could potentially cut emissions.
The last step in the process is being glossed over, where they mention the final ingredient is glycerol. Google says the primary ways we get glycerol is from plants, animals, or good ol oil. They specifically say this doesn’t use plant or animal products, so I’m left assuming this entire process hinges on ‘drill baby drill’
The planet can be saved! We just need to eat CO2 HO butter.
Did you eat your butter quota today? Do your part!
I assume we sequester it when we poop? I don’t know what we do with human waste sludge. And I’m not sure I’m brave enough to google for myself.
We breathe most out all day long. Just note that direct human emissions are irrelevant.
We have bacteria break it down to create biogas, wich we burn for energy, and sludge wich we burn and put the ashes in landfills or back on the fields as fertilizer.
You can rest assured that all the carbon makes it to the atmosphere, one way or another.anton
On first pass landfill doesn’t sound that bad. But that’s after burning… Alas.
Even if it gets put in s landfill without burning, it will rott and the carbon reaches the atmosphere as CO2 or methane (much worse).
I find myself very curious about the amount of carbon left after burning (presumably the char doesn’t rot so much?). Trying to look it up also turned up this:
https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/04/11/to-more-effectively-sequester-biomass-and-carbon-just-add-salt/
(Clearly over-optimistic reporting of a researcher; but conceptually satisfying.) Perhaps if we have enough salted butter go to waste…
I can’t believe it’s not butter.
